In summer, the authorities carried out dredging works and interventions to ensure the raw water needed to cool reactors 1 and 2 at the Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant, amid historically low Danube water levels. The first stage of the works cost 12.1 million lei, and the Lower Danube River Administration Galați carried out dredging in the Caragheorghe–Turcescu and Cochirleni areas, supplemented by interventions by the National Administration “Apele Române”, including the sinking of barges at the mouth of the Bala Branch and the dredging of 100,000 cubic meters.
Subsequently, the Bala Interministerial Committee approved a final report on solutions for ensuring the water needed for cooling, including in view of expanding the power plant to four units. The report provided for mobilizing, when necessary, an additional water supply at the cooling intake and continuing dredging on the Old Danube to increase the flow rate and improve navigation, while the technical-economic indicators for updating the Bala II project are to be endorsed and approved in accordance with the law.
